Trump's 'Golden Age' Comes Early to Idaho

Cropped screenshot of ICE Activity Tracker taken by the author about 8:00 a.m. on February 11, 2026.

A town in Idaho, whose residents went 91% for Trump in 2024, is being devastated by ICE raids, which are hardly exclusive to large, blue cities. A quick check on the crowd-sourced ICE Activity Tracker, as illustrated at right, is all it takes to show the nationwide scope of the raids.

Masked thugs recently conducted a "gambling" raid on a racetrack near the town. Among other things, the "agents" asked everyone where they were from, set off flash-bang grenades, ziptied children, and rounded up scores of the farmworkers locals regularly hired for harvests

Now that the town's field workers have all gone into hiding or been deported, it faces an uncertain and wary future:

John Carter runs a security company that worked at the racetrack, and he's a Trump supporter himself. But what he saw that day shook him up. He watched agents point automatic rifles at people and set off flash-bang grenades while arresting Ivan Tellez, who allegedly operated the track.

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Carter's own 14-year-old daughter was there. She got zip-tied, too. He saw officers pointing guns at teenagers. The whole thing felt less like a law enforcement operation and more like a military raid.

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The raid left a mark that goes beyond the people who got deported. Gross mentioned that now, when anyone -- Hispanic or not -- sees a black SUV driving through town, they freeze up. There's this constant low-level anxiety hanging over Wilder. Alex Zamora, the school superintendent, summed up how a lot of people feel: 'There was just such confusion. What in the world is going on in Wilder?'

The farmers are staring down a real problem. Without enough workers, crops could end up rotting in the fields. The people who know how to do this work are either gone or too frightened to come out.

The piece adds, "Supporting strict immigration laws is one thing when it's abstract. It's another thing entirely when your neighbour gets deported and there's nobody left to harvest the fields."

Maybe consider thinking about what your slogans mean in practice, next time. Perhaps look harder at the person you imagine you want in power, and who he surrounds himself with.

While it may be true that Trump punishes his political enemies, it is also apparent that he pretty much treats everyone the same rotten way, sooner or later.

As tempted as I am to smirk and say, You asked for it, the fact remains that their problem is our problem. Perhaps a few Trump supporters here and there will wake up before it's too late.

-- CAV

P.S. "Irishman detained by ICE agents describes 'torture' after five months in prison camp despite living in US 20 years, having an American wife and no criminal record." Hispanic or not, indeed.